Wayne Simmonds is a hockey player. And at 23 years old, he's a pretty good one.

The Philadelphia Flyers acquired Simmonds, a physical winger with a developing scoring touch, as part of a summer trade that sent former captain Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings.

You don't accidentally wind up as part of the principal return for a 26-year-old former 80-point scorer.

Simmonds is also black. And on Thursday night, as he was skating toward Detroit Red Wings goalie Jordan Pierce during an exhibition shootout in London, Ontario, someone threw a banana peel from the stands and onto the ice.

He scored—just as he had to force overtime with less than a minute to play in the third period. And in the aftermath of the ugly, undoubtedly racist incident, he continued to show the qualities that attracted Philadelphia to him in the first place.

"It shocked me and I knew I had to keep going and get a shot off," Simmonds, a Toronto native who grew up about 2 1/2 hours from London, said after the game. "It was certainly unusual."

"I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact I'm black," he added. "I certainly hope not. When you're black, you kind of expect (racist) things. You learn to deal with it."

The incident prompted instant, near-universal contempt. Simmonds—like the league itself, management at John Labatt Centre and London's mayor—needed to address it again Friday.

"It was unfortunate that this incident happened, but I am above this sort of stuff," Simmonds said. "This is something that is obviously out of my control. Moving forward, this incident is something that I will no longer comment on so I can just focus on playing hockey for the Philadelphia Flyers."

"Stupid" was the word of the day; it showed up in statements released by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and London mayor Joe Fontana.

"We have millions of great fans who show tremendous respect for our players and for the game," Bettman said Friday. "The obviously stupid and ignorant action by one individual is in no way representative of our fans or the people of London, Ontario."

"It was a stupid and mindless act by a single individual," he said. "However, it reflects badly on our entire community. London is a diverse and welcoming city, and we like it that way."

Simmonds' teammates have his back—"I would have went and kicked that fan's ass myself," an unnamed Flyer told the Philadelphia Daily News after the game. Not that he's overly concerned.

"For him, he's not too worried about it," Brayden Schenn, a teammate of Simmonds' in Los Angeles and the other player Philadelphia acquired in the Richards trade, told reporters after the game. "For us, we're supporting him. It's just shocking that something like that would happen."

Sharks forward Logan Couture: "Wayne Simmonds is a good friend of mine. To hear what happened tonight to him in my hometown is awful. No need for this in sports, or life."

Nobody would've blamed Simmonds for taking his own criticism to the next level. As one of the NHL's few black players, he has spoken in the past at length about race, and he's dealt with other challenges head-on; growing up in inner-city Toronto, his parents didn't have the money to pay for their son to play in the region's elite minor leagues. That's not a deal-breaker for a player with NHL aspirations, but it's close.

"I remember one year at AAA tryouts, the coaches wanted to speak to my parents and I remember not going upstairs with them because I knew I could't afford it." Simmonds told The Hockey News last year. "I wasn't going to go there and push my parents into a situation where they couldn't say no to me."

And he's in the NHL, anyway. Hopefully, he can spend the season focus on cashing in on his potential as a player and scoring a few more goals.